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            <h2 class="title"><a id="DBEntry"></a>Chapter 8. Database Records</h2>
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        <p>
          <b>Table of Contents</b>
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        <dl>
          <dt>
            <span class="sect1">
              <a href="DBEntry.html#usingDbEntry">Using Database Records</a>
            </span>
          </dt>
          <dt>
            <span class="sect1">
              <a href="usingDbt.html">Reading and Writing Database Records</a>
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              <dt>
                <span class="sect2">
                  <a href="usingDbt.html#databaseWrite">Writing Records to the Database</a>
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              <dt>
                <span class="sect2">
                  <a href="usingDbt.html#databaseRead">Getting Records from the Database</a>
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              </dt>
              <dt>
                <span class="sect2">
                  <a href="usingDbt.html#recordDelete">Deleting Records</a>
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              <dt>
                <span class="sect2">
                  <a href="usingDbt.html#datapersist">Data Persistence</a>
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            <span class="sect1">
              <a href="bindAPI.html">Using the BIND APIs</a>
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              <dt>
                <span class="sect2">
                  <a href="bindAPI.html#bindPrimitive">Numerical and String Objects</a>
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              <dt>
                <span class="sect2">
                  <a href="bindAPI.html#object2dbt">Serializable Complex Objects</a>
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              <dt>
                <span class="sect2">
                  <a href="bindAPI.html#customTuple">Custom Tuple Bindings</a>
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            <span class="sect1">
              <a href="comparator.html">Using Comparators</a>
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              <dt>
                <span class="sect2">
                  <a href="comparator.html#writeCompare">Writing Comparators</a>
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                <span class="sect2">
                  <a href="comparator.html#setCompare">Setting Comparators</a>
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            <span class="sect1">
              <a href="dbtUsage.html">Database Record Example</a>
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      <p>
      JE records contain two parts — a key and some data. Both the key
    and its corresponding data are 
      encapsulated in
          <span><code class="classname">DatabaseEntry</code> class objects.</span> 
           
           
    Therefore, to access a JE record, you need two such
        
        <span>objects,</span> one for the key and
        one for the data.
  </p>
      <p>
    <code class="classname">DatabaseEntry</code> can hold any kind of data from simple
    Java primitive types to complex Java objects so long as that data can be
    represented as a Java <code class="literal">byte</code> array. Note that due to
    performance considerations, you should not use Java serialization to convert
    a Java object to a <code class="literal">byte</code> array. Instead, use the Bind APIs
    to perform this conversion (see 
    <a class="xref" href="bindAPI.html" title="Using the BIND APIs">Using the BIND APIs</a> for more
    information).
  </p>
      <p>
    This chapter describes how you can convert both Java primitives and Java
    class objects into and out of <code class="literal">byte</code> arrays. It also
    introduces storing and retrieving key/value pairs from a database. In
    addition, this chapter describes how you can use comparators to influence
    how JE sorts its database records.
  </p>
      <div class="sect1" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
        <div class="titlepage">
          <div>
            <div>
              <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="usingDbEntry"></a>Using Database Records</h2>
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>
        <p>
        Each database record is comprised of two 
        <span><code class="classname">DatabaseEntry</code> objects</span>
        
        
        — one for the key and another for the data. 

        <span>The key and data information are passed to-
        and returned from JE using
        <code class="classname">DatabaseEntry</code> objects as <code class="literal">byte</code>
        arrays. Using <code class="classname">DatabaseEntry</code>s allows JE to
        change the underlying byte array as well as return multiple values (that
        is, key and data).  Therefore, using <code class="classname">DatabaseEntry</code> instances
        is mostly an exercise in efficiently moving your keys and your data in
        and out of <code class="literal">byte</code> arrays.</span>
    </p>
        <p>
        For example, to store a database record where both the key and the
        data are Java <code class="classname">String</code> objects, you instantiate a
        pair of <code class="classname">DatabaseEntry</code> objects:
    </p>
        <a id="je_dbt1"></a>
        <pre class="programlisting">package je.gettingStarted;

import com.sleepycat.je.DatabaseEntry;

...

String aKey = "key";
String aData = "data";

try {
    DatabaseEntry theKey = new DatabaseEntry(aKey.getBytes("UTF-8"));
    DatabaseEntry theData = new DatabaseEntry(aData.getBytes("UTF-8"));
} catch (Exception e) {
    // Exception handling goes here
}

    // Storing the record is described later in this chapter </pre>
        <div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
          <h3 class="title">Note</h3>
          <p>
            Notice that we specify <code class="literal">UTF-8</code> when we retrieve the
            <code class="literal">byte</code> array from our <code class="classname">String</code>
            object. Without parameters, <code class="methodname">String.getBytes()</code> uses the
            Java system's default encoding. You should never use a system's default
            encoding when storing data in a database because the encoding can change.
        </p>
        </div>
        <p>
        When the record is retrieved from the database, the method that you
        use to perform this operation populates two <code class="classname">DatabaseEntry</code>
        instances for you, one for the key and another for the data. Assuming Java
        <code class="classname">String</code> objects, you retrieve your data from the
        <code class="classname">DatabaseEntry</code> as follows:
    </p>
        <a id="je_dbt2"></a>
        <pre class="programlisting">package je.gettingStarted;

import com.sleepycat.je.DatabaseEntry;

...

// theKey and theData are DatabaseEntry objects. Database
// retrieval is described later in this chapter. For now, 
// we assume some database get method has populated these
// objects for us.

// Use DatabaseEntry.getData() to retrieve the encapsulated Java
// byte array.

byte[] myKey = theKey.getData();
byte[] myData = theData.getData();

String key = new String(myKey, "UTF-8");
String data = new String(myData, "UTF-8"); </pre>
        <p>
        There are a large number of mechanisms that you can use to move data in
        and out of <code class="literal">byte</code> arrays. To help you with this
        activity, JE provides the bind APIs. These APIs allow you to
        efficiently store both primitive data types and complex objects in
        <code class="literal">byte</code> arrays.
    </p>
        <p>
        The next section describes basic database put and get operations. A
        basic understanding of database access is useful when describing database
        storage of more complex data such as is supported by the bind APIs. Basic
        bind API usage is then described in <a class="xref" href="bindAPI.html" title="Using the BIND APIs">Using the BIND APIs</a>.
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